CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers begin a three game road trip tonight in Washington against the Wizards. They are by far the hottest team in the NBA right now. They are also playing a brand of basketball that makes them the most complete team in the league at this date in February.
I mean their numbers are amazing:
- Six wins in a row
- Winners of 14 of their last 15 games
- 18-8 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
- 14-8 on the road
If I brought home report cards like that back in Boston, life would have been so much smoother in the Donovan household.
The Cavs can play any style game you want to try up against them. Monday night, the Sacramento Kings wanted to go up and down the floor against them and the Cavs turned that around on them and scored 136 points. That's an incredible amount of points! And now with a timely dose of good health, really, what is stopping them from taking a run at the Celtics for the top spot in the Eastern Conference?
Now to something to think about as we close in on the NBA All-Star weekend: A lot of experienced teams in the NBA approach the regular season as an 82-game nuisance. They just bob and weave their way through the winter months keeping an eye on where they want to be in the spring and the beginning of the playoffs. It's like a long winter's nap for a lot of teams. They awake in late March and then jockey their way into a spot in their conference that will give them a path to make a deep run.
You'll see the Celtics coast on certain nights. Look at the Bucks. They've already made a coaching change and gone to Doc Rivers to take them the rest of the way. The Sixers will survive over the next month and wait for Joel Embiid to come back after having a knee procedure. And who knows what LeBron and Anthony Davis will do with the Lakers?
The Cavs are still young and still lacking playoff experience. They got a dose of what you need to do in the postseason when the Knicks took them out in five games last year. I would predict the Cavs have learned from that. The playoffs are so much more physical than the regular season and you can't lose at home, especially when you fight so hard to get home court advantage. Remember, they lost that Game 1 to the Knicks at home and never got their footing after that.
For now just sit back and watch the Cavs keep racking up the wins, and they will. Hopefully, they stay healthy and by the time April arrives we'll see how grown up the Cavs have become. But let's face it: on February 7th they look like a team a lot of teams would want to avoid in the NBA Playoffs.
Tomorrow: Can Kyle Shanahan finally win the big game?
I'll see you tonight on 3News!